Cross River State Governor, Ben Ayade yesterday presented a N1.3 trillion budget for the 2018 fiscal year to the state House of Assembly.

Twice the governor had tried to present the budget but could not due to disagreement between him and the lawmakers over unpaid allowances amounting to N600m.

But The Guardian gathered that N10m was allegedly paid to each member before the presentation yesterday.Details of the Budget of Kinetic Crystallisation, shows that 70 per cent is allocated for capital expenditure while 30 per cent goes for recurrent expenditure.

The size of the budget, Ayade said, was meant to create room for the warehousing of expected investors’ fund now that the actual construction of key projects of the administration such as the Bakassi Deep Seaport and the 274km superhighway has commenced.

“It is a budget that crystallises the depth of our vision into action in 2018. It is meant to draw the perspective of a humongous, large, ambitious budget.

“It is not enveloped by our purchasing capacity but by the capacity of our thought process. It is designed and tailored to fit our dream,” he said.

Ayade urged members of the State House of Assembly to join him in dreaming big for the state to achieve its objective of financial independence.

“This will send a positive message to investors who know that by the budgetary provisions they can warehouse their investments because sometimes people give funding either by way of capital or by direct project implementation,

Meanwhile, Kano State Governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje has presented a budget of N234 billion for the 2018 fiscal year.Presenting the budget before the state House of Assembly yesterday, Ganduje said N152 billion is earmarked for capital expenditure while N82 is allocated for recurrent expenditure.

The Budget of Reality, Ganduje said, would be financed from N148 billion, comprising N54 billion from the state internally generated revenue (IGR) and N94 billion from the federation account .

The recurrent expenditure for 2018 is higher than that of 2017 by N732 million, while the projected IGR for 2018 is also higher by N4.5 million or 9.2 per cent compared to the 2017 figures.